The 31st MEU during PHIBLEX 2012

Royal Navy vindicated...Falklands endangered.

Wow.

Hope those Typhoons are capable in the maritime strike arena, cause what Sharkey was worried about appears to be happening...the Falklands appear to be endangered, check this out via BlackFive from Assoluta Tranquilita...

Argentina has launched a naval campaign to isolate the Falkland Islands that has seen it detain Spanish fishing vessels on suspicion of breaking the country’s “blockade” of the seas around the British territories.

Read the whole thing but a couple of things are obvious.  Weakness will be exploited.  Its guaranteed.

Update:

For the doubters we have this from the Telegraph.

Argentine patrol commanders carrying out interceptions near the South American coast told Spanish captains they were in violation of Argentina’s “legal” blockade of sea channels to the Falklands.

The warning has been backed up in a letter to Aetinape, the Spanish fishing vessels association from the Argentine embassy in Madrid warning boats in the area that “Falklands, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands and adjoining maritime spaces are an integral part of the Argentine territory.”

F-35 News...

Nothing I wanted to read about but I'll post what popped up....

The first carrier variant test aircraft for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter takes off on its 100th test flight Nov. 29 with Marine Corps test pilot Lt. Col. Matthew Taylor at the controls. (Photo courtesy of Lockheed Martin)

The photo is a press release by NAVAIR and the following statement is from the JSF Program Office...

JPO STATEMENT ON DOD AND LOCKHEED MARTIN REACHING A TENTATIVE F-35 UCA AGREEMENT
The Department of Defense and the Lockheed Martin Corporation have reached a tentative agreement on key terms of the 5th F-35 Low Rate Initial Production contract, known as LRIP 5, which will enable award of an Undefinitized Contract Action (UCA). The key terms include agreement on a fixed-price type contract vehicle and a concurrency clause where DOD and Lockheed Martin will share responsibility on costs for concurrency changes -- modification costs associated with changes discovered during development. The UCA award will allow Lockheed Martin and its suppliers to begin production of the LRIP 5 aircraft and bill for incurred costs. The exact value of the contract and number of aircraft procured will be announced through the normal DOD contract announcement process.

What I wanted to hear was a clarifying statement from the good Admiral.  I think everyone following the F-35 wants to hear what he has to say.

But alas, he's crawled under a rock and is no where to be found.

Pathetic.

ISAF statement on Iran's drone shoot-down...

ISAF speaks on the Iranian "drone shoot-down"...

KABUL, Afghanistan (December 4, 2011) – "The UAV to which the Iranians are referring may be a US unarmed reconnaissance aircraft that had been flying a mission over western Afghanistan late last week. The operators of the UAV lost control of the aircraft and had been working to determine its status."

Certainly makes sense...but notice what's been left out.  The type of UAV and the cause of the loss of control.

There is alot more to this story than meets the eye.

What now Lt?

The Marine Gazette back in the day ran tactical problems in their magazine.  The problems were based on historical situations that required some out of the box thinking, inspirational leadership and a bit of risk taking.

They always ended with the question to the reader...What now Lt after presenting a seemingly impossible situation to be solved.

You had to tune in the following month to get the "Marine Corps" answer to the problem.

Well despite some thinking that I'm being hysterical in my thinking that the F-35 is in trouble not from its critics but from the military establishment...and by extension budget cutters, other airplane manufacturers etc....its time for the Marine Corps as a whole to say collectively.

What now?

A couple of things not to do...

1.  Do NOT buy Super Hornets.  An interim jet will quickly become a good enough jet if we fall into that trap.
2.  Do NOT slep F/A-18C's and D's.  Pouring good money after bad in an attempt to keep elderly airframes viable especially when spare parts will be difficult to obtain is a suckers bet.
3.  Do NOT abandon the aviation neck down campaign.

Now a couple of things TO do...

1.  Do explore the possibility of upgrading the engines on the Harriers.
2.  Do explore the possibility of avionics upgrades to the Harrier.
3.  Do explore the possibility of fitting an AESA radar on the Harrier.

A couple of things to investigate as cheaply as possible...

1.  Is it possible to mount a bigger, more aerodynamically viable wing to the Harrier?  One that will increase range and speed?
2.  Does it make sense to convert the two seat training models into FAC's?
3.  Does a stretched Harrier make sense?

I still believe the F-35B will enter service but I'm becoming more and more convinced that it will be in the 2020 time period and not 2014 or 2015 as had been hoped.

Fat chance on getting early slots on the production line too.  The USAF will be in need of replacements as much as the USMC.

So my question to you all is what now?

Note:

You can bet big bucks that some of the allies will drop out now with the excuse being that they can't wait till 2020 to replace airframes.  Gripen will be laughing all the way to the bank...Typhoon and Rafael will still be priced out of the market and Super Hornet MIGHT pick up some orders but for our European allies, you can bet that the push to buy European will be as strong there as it is for our defense department to buy US.  The most interesting ally to watch in this whole episode will be the Canadians.

That's why this is such a huge deal.  Just a couple of weeks ago the Canadian Defense Minister came out fully in support of the F-35 (as did the Australian) and not only that but so did the US SecDef.

Now the Program Manager just cut the legs from underneath not only our guy but the guys in other countries.


If this wasn't a planned announcement then we should see a walk back on Monday.  If it was planned then we should see a clarification and amplification on Monday.

Either way Monday should be interesting.

Game over?

Ok, lets frame this up.

First we have this blurb on ARES by the Program Manager of the JSF project.

"The analyzed hot spots that have arisen in the last 12 months or so in the program have surprised us at the amount of change and at the cost," Vice Adm. David Venlet said in an interview at his office near the Pentagon. "Most of them are little ones, but when you bundle them all up and package them and look at where they are in the airplane and how hard they are to get at after you buy the jet, the cost burden of that is what sucks the wind out of your lungs."

"I believe it's wise to sort of temper production for a while here until we get some of these heavy years of learning under our belt and get that managed right. And then when we've got most of that known and we've got the management of the change activity better in hand, then we will be in a better position to ramp up production."

Take it in.

That's not Sweetman playing with words.

That's the fucking program manager.

But let's break it down a bit...

"Most of them are little ones, but when you bundle them all up and package them and look at where they are in the airplane and how hard they are to get at after you buy the jet, the cost burden of that is what sucks the wind out of your lungs."

Wow.

After all the fantastic performance that the F-35 has been having lately, I've been wondering why they haven't shoved it off probation.  I know this is part of the development track but dang.  You have this guy talking about "sucks the wind out of your lungs"....that's not good.

A story appeared on Aviation Week that stated that the unit cost of the F-35B was 111 million dollars.  Thats right where you want this bad boy to be and you can expect the cost to come down.  But the repair bill is looking like a monster.

If that isn't bad enough then we have this statement...

"I believe it's wise to sort of temper production for a while here until we get some of these heavy years of learning under our belt and get that managed right. And then when we've got most of that known and we've got the management of the change activity better in hand, then we will be in a better position to ramp up production."

Grunt translation.

We fucked this up.

This program is fucked up beyond recognition. 

We need to get our bearings, get ourselves sorted out and then we can continue to march.

I hope I'm wrong.

Geez I HOPE I'M WRONG.

But that's what I read this guy saying.  I've read Elements of Power's take on this but I keep coming back to the Admiral's words.

"...temper production for a while here until we get some of these heavy years of learning under our belt and get managed right..."

The F-35 appears to be fucked.  If you disagree (and on this one I'd love to be wrong) then hit me up.

Raid force fast-ropes aboard USS New Orleans

Photos by Lance Cpl. Claudia Palacios

American X - Planes...from X -1 to X -50.

From X-1 to X-50

David Cenciotti goes medieval on the F-22!

Medieval I tell ya!

Read the whole thing here but check out this tidbit...

Second, the US ACC decision can also be read as: “the F-22 is good for air shows. All the other combat planes are good for war.”

Typhoon, A400M and Tigre upgrade paths are a joke!

Anyone thinking that the Typhoon has a chance of winning future orders should be drug tested immediately.

While we've all been focused (on this side of the Atlantic) on issues ranging from the F-35, to the current wars, to the coming issues with China...Germany has begun a series of austerity measures that should shock defense analysts.

Check this out from SLD, but here's a juicy bit...

The main story broke that Germany wished to make significant cuts in a raft of aerospace programs. The proposed cuts were in Eurofighter (from 177 to 140), A400M  (from 53 to 40), Tiger attack helicopter (from 80 to 40), and NH-90 (from 122 to 80). Looking at all of these, the scale of the cuts ranges from a “mere” 20%, right up to 50% in the case of Tiger.
 An observation: is anyone really surprised about the Typhoon cuts? Isn’t this cut simply Germany doing what the UK (and Italy) had done, that is ordering Tranche 3A, but consigning Tranche 3B to the dustbin? As such, Defence Analysis cannot say that we are particularly  “surprised” by this. And on the same line, talk to practically anyone in France (let alone Italy or Spain), and they will state that Germany’s A400M offtake was originally a joke at close to 70, was a joke even when brought down to 60, and even at 40 looks excessive for a military that hardly leaves its own borders.

Wow.

The story's main line is that friction between Germany and France will be exacerbated with these types of cuts.

I'm taking another tact.

With cuts like this, the upgrade paths for all these aircraft will take a hit.

They will be extremely expensive.

They won't keep up with US advancements.

They will be seen as technologically stale by nations seeking to purchase new airplanes.

Sweetman worried that the design of the F-35 program was an attempt to take control of the Western fighter market...essentially freezing out Europe.

He was wrong.  The Europeans are doing it to themselves.

WEST PAC 11-2

A Marine with Company L, Battalion Landing Team 3/1, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, fires at a target while wearing a gas mask during in a live-fire exercise aboard USS New Orleans here Dec. 1. The unit embarked USS New Orleans, USS Makin Island and USS Pearl Harbor in San Diego Nov. 14, beginning a seven-month deployment to the Western Pacific and Middle East regions.  Photo by Cpl. Chad Pulliam

A Marine with Company L, Battalion Landing Team 3/1, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, wears a gas mask during a live-fire exercise aboard USS New Orleans here Dec. 1. The unit embarked USS New Orleans, USS Makin Island and USS Pearl Harbor in San Diego Nov. 14, beginning a seven-month deployment to the Western Pacific and Middle East regions.  Photo by Cpl. Chad Pulliam

A Marine with Company L, Battalion Landing Team 3/1, 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, participates in a live-fire exercise aboard USS New Orleans here Dec. 1. The unit embarked USS New Orleans, USS Makin Island and USS Pearl Harbor in San Diego Nov. 14, beginning a seven-month deployment to the Western Pacific and Middle East regions.  Photo by Cpl. Chad Pulliam

Marines bullish on F-35.

via WNEP.com from Reuters.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Marine Corps version of Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 fighter jet could soon be taken off a "probation" imposed by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, a U.S. Marine Corps official said on Wednesday.

General Joseph Dunford, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, told an investment conference that he was "pretty bullish" on the F-35B, the short takeoff, vertical landing variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

He cited progress in fixing technical problems and said the fighter jet met 98 percent of its test points this year.
Gates put the F-35B on a two-year probation last January and threatened to cancel further work on it unless technical issues were resolved. But Dunford said he was optimistic about the plane's future after a year of solid progress.

"It's no longer ... in the cross hairs," Dunford told the conference hosted by Credit Suisse and Aviation Week, noting that an engineering solution had been identified for every challenge that had arisen.
Given the progress, the plane already was slowly coming off probation and could see that label removed wholly at the start of 2012, he said.

The F-35 program is the biggest U.S. weapons program, which has prompted speculation that the program may face big cuts as Pentagon budget officials struggle to cut over $450 billion from their plans for the next decade.

The F-35B, designed to take off from shorter runways and land vertically, like a helicopter, is seen as particularly vulnerable given a variety of technical issues.

But Dunford said the new fighter remained a top priority of the Marine Corps, and that its ability to land on shorter runways and twice as many U.S. warships was a critical capability that the military could not do without.
Dunford said the Marines would not accept a "hollow force", and would rather downsize the overall size of their force than send Marines into battle without the right equipment.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal-Esa)

Every time we get a "strange" bit of news that many of the military blogs pick up on the F-35 (mostly non-stories that are put forward as breaking news) I start looking around the web because I realize that it must be in reaction to something positive that's been said.

Which had me search out the above news story.  But why, you ask do I suspect a good news story about the F-35 occurred whenever I see a quasi bad news one?

Exhibit number one.

Dunford made these statements to a conference hosted by Credit Suisse and Aviation Week!  Yet we didn't read any of this on their blog!

Exhibit number two.

We have this story posted by a couple of Aviation Week journalist.  Read it here.

It might not be a conspiracy but it is definitely an effort by some to shape opinion about the F-35.

US Marines and US Air Force to begin pilot training in the F-35 in 2012.

via Defense News...

"Looks like training for STOVL students may go around August of this coming year," the official said. "Once student training starts, it will include all modes including STOVL."
Originally, the STOVL training was projected to start around April 2012. Air Force pilots will likely start training in the F-35A conventional-takeoff version months before the Marines, as previously planned.

Pics of the day. Nov 30, 2011.

The latest production F-35B (Navy Bureau Number 168059, called BF-8) was flown from NAS Fort Worth JRB on 29 November 2011.  Lockheed Martin test pilot Bill Gigliotti was the pilot for aircraft's first flight.

As the crew of Fat Albert, the support aircraft for the Blue Angels, the US Navy's Air Demonstration Squadron, brings their twenty-year-old C-130T in for a landing at NAS JRB Fort Worth, Texas, on 22 November 2011, the latest production F-35B Lightning II (Bureau Number 168059) can be seen in a flight line hangar at the adjoining Lockheed Martin facility. Fat Albert’s crew stopped in Fort Worth to pick up two pallets of toys for the Marine Corps Toys For Tots program

I don't know who "Farmer" is but he's one heck of a artist!

Spike’s Tactical Rally Fighter

Massive hat tip to Soldier Systems...

Spike's version...

Standard version (if you can call this vehicle standard)

Go to Soldier Systems website for more info....I can't wait to read how SOCOM writes the requirement to get about 500 of these.  Of course it'll be airdrop capable and have mounts for a 50 cal on the roof and a passenger side 7.62 machine gun, with an additional passenger facing rearward with another 50 cal.

Damn it, I hope they write the requirement!

Naval guns...we took a step back by taking them off amphibs.

Back in the old days...when the Marine Corps still remembered the lessons of the past, Amphibs had 5 inch guns.  In the case of the old school Tarawa --- two 5in guns.

Why do I bring this up?  Because of an article by the G-man today.  Check it out here but this part caught my attention.

But hindsight being what it is, I do have serious questions if the US Navy leverages the flexibility of the amphibious ships well in modern irregular warfare situations like offshore of Somalia. Does anyone honestly think it is a good idea to put a $2 billion ship like USS Chafee (DDG 90) in green water for fire support? Our destroyer force is being primarily resourced to fight sophisticated air targets, not shoot guns to shore in littorals which are always the most risky.

What a false choice current US force structure forces on warfighters for gunfire support - either send in $3 billion DDG-1000s with advanced gun systems or send in the less expensive, terribly armed 57mm hauling LCS. Honestly, where are Reapers on LHDs, because right now the only other option is to task the RW community for their capabilities.

I encourage folks to read the whole Military Times article and give it some serious thought. When I read that article, I ask myself why the US Navy and US Marine Corps spends so much money building and maintaining amphibious ships to deploy structured air-sea-land battalions if the MEUs are unable to accomplish the sustained irregular warfare missions by sea as described in that article. That situation in 2007-2009 off Somalia appears to have been crying for a Sea Base, and yet none existed. Why

I'm a little disappointed with this article for a number of reasons...

1.  This was a Special Ops party.  Having a floating sea base (even if it was just one LHA) would probably have been a show stopper for the snake eaters.  Quiet professionals and all that.
2.  ID posted an article just a few days ago that complained about the lack of amphibs and even talked about a deployment that is reaching record breaking lengths.  Read it here and here.
3.  He forgets the 'time' that the Navy and Marine Corps was living in.  Iraq was going gang busters.  IED attacks were at all time highs, the war was in doubt and things had yet to turn our way.  Additionally you had missions going in Afghanistan and other parts of the world (I forget where but do remember it was a crazy busy time).  If I recall correctly all the naval forces had available was probably a destroyer.

But having said all that, the G-man has a point, but not for the reason that he thinks.

Where is the sea base.  I've attempted to capture some of the documents before the USMC placed them behind a firewall but even with the latest MEB exercise we didn't see even the tinkle of a sea base being utilized.

The issues with Pakistan would certainly be less stressful if we had one available too.

2nd Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team & 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment get in a training evolution...

U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Kyle Nielson, with 2nd Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team out of Norfolk, Va., demonstrates how FAST Marines transition from primary to secondary weapons for Australian Army Soldiers with 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment at Robertson Barracks, Darwin, Australia, Nov. 23, 2011. FAST Marines are attending Exercise Semper Fast 2011, a combined training event hosted by 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment focusing on small arms ranges, direct fire ranges, military operations on urban terrain, and light infantry operations. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Pete Thibodeau)

Australian Army Sgt. Bruce Morris, with 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (5 RAR), gives a class on Australian military weapons systems to U.S. Marines with 2nd Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team out of Norfolk, Va., on Robertson Barracks, Darwin, Australia, Nov. 21, 2011. FAST Marines are attending Exercise Semper Fast 2011, a combined training event hosted by 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment focusing on small arms ranges, direct fire ranges, military operations on urban terrain, and light infantry operations. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Pete Thibodeau)

Australian Army Cpl. Phillip Trease, with 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (5 RAR), gives a class on Australian military weapons systems to U.S. Marines with 2nd Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team out of Norfolk, Va., on Robertson Barracks, Darwin, Australia, Nov. 21, 2011. FAST Marines are attending Exercise Semper Fast 2011, a combined training event hosted by 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment focusing on small arms ranges, direct fire ranges, military operations on urban terrain, and light infantry operations. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Pete Thibodeau)

An Australian Army Soldier with 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment tries on Marine Corps protective gear from U.S. Marines with 2nd Fleet Anti-Terrorism Security Team out of Norfolk, Va., at Robertson Barracks, Darwin, Australia, Nov. 23, 2011. FAST Marines are attending Exercise Semper Fast 2011, a combined training event hosted by 5th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment focusing on small arms ranges, direct fire ranges, military operations on urban terrain, and light infantry operations. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Pete Thibodeau)

We have holographic sights for our rifles, why not our pistols?

I believe that many firearm innovations start out in the civilian world and migrate to the military.  It didn't use to be that way.

Back when civilian shooting wasn't as big a force as it is today, the military wagged the dog.  Now you see major firearm manufacturers backing out of military competitions to focus on the civilian market.  Smith and Wesson is the latest example of this....they just backed out of the M4 comp.

But to the issue at hand.

A big trend is beginning to appear in the civilian shooting market and I'm beyond intrigued.  I'm ready to pull the trigger on it and I'm wondering why the military hasn't investigated its use. 

That would be the holographic sight on a pistol.

The above system is from TSD.

What I find absolutely amazing is that not even US Special Ops appears to be embracing this tech.

That should change.  I think this is a worthwhile addition that should be procured by the lab rats at the USMC Marksmanship Training Unit to investigate its combat possibilities.

Its definitely as worthy as the IAR....in my opinion more so.

USMC AH-1Z Super Cobra and UH-1Y Huey flight for Top Brass

Hat tip to Military Photos.net via Military Notes